1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to circuits, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for debugging a multicore system.
2. Background
A multicore system is a system having multiple processing cores. These processing cores may be digital signal processing (DSP) cores, processor cores, and/or some other types of processing units. DSP cores are specialized processors that are designed to execute mathematical computations very rapidly. For example, a DSP core may include one or more multiply-and-accumulate (MAC) units, one or more arithmetic logic units (ALUs), and so on. Processor cores are general-purpose processors that may be programmed to perform various functions.
A multicore system typically goes through a design phase and a debugging phase prior to production. In the design phase, each processing core is designed to meet the requirements for that core. In the debugging phase, the processing cores in the system are tested to find design flaws and bugs, which may be fixed prior to production.
The debugging of a multicore system is challenging for various reasons. First, each processing core may be a complicated system that needs to be debugged using sophisticated debugging tools. Second, the processing cores in the system typically interact with each other. Hence, the debugging of a given processing core may require the other processing cores be properly configured.
Conventionally, multiple debuggers are used to debug the processing cores in a multicore system. Each debugger may be a combination of hardware, firmware, and/or software that controls the operation of an associated processing core to allow for debugging of that core. Each debugger may be operated independently to debug the associated processing core. However, in a multicore system, it is often desirable to coordinate the debugging of these processing cores so that their interactions can be captured.
There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to debug a multicore system.